Sector-specific Corporate Responsibility in Germany

Germany is one of the world’s leading exporters and benefits
from a healthy
economy despite the economic and financial crisis. It is also the
origin of the
so-called “social market economy”. In light of this
tradition and its strong economy, which boasts many leading
companies, the country has been criticised
for not doing enough regarding explicit corporate responsibility
(CR). This has
changed with the government’s recent publication of an
“action plan” and sub-sequent initiatives to support CR.
However, the government’s new CR approach does not take
sector-specific corporate responsibility (SCR) into account. This is
a missed opportunity because, as this chapter shows, public actors
have already been active supporters of various sectoral
initiatives